I

FRAGMENT OF A DRAFT OF

A TESTAMENT WRITTEN IN

GERMAN*

I believe I am not mistaken in considering my cousin Carl Heine the natural protector of my widow. When in the winter of 1847 he visited me, for the purpose of coming to an understanding with me personally and without the interference of a legal adviser, he showed the greatest readiness to grant all my wishes in regard to my wife.

*Heine's last testament, written in French, bears the date November 13, 1851. The draft given in the above translation was probably written in 1854.

I requested him to give me the assurance that he would pay after my death half of my annual pension to my widow, just as his deceased father had agreed to do. My cousin Carl promised on his word of honor to do this, and gave me as a pledge of this stipulation his noble hand which I pressed to my lips. I was perfectly satisfied to see him thus reconciled; but he surely would not have hesitated a moment in promising to grant the whole amount of the pension to my widow, in case I had expressed the slightest wish in this regard. But I did not request this of him, because I simply wished to insist upon those rights, an infringement of which would have been a barefaced injustice. That I had other rights, which were equally just and evident, but which were not as easily proved, I wisely and almost maliciously passed over in silence. Besides, I was then of the belief that a reduction of the pension would not be of great importance to my widow. The above-mentioned stipulation of my cousin Carl Heine was made on the 25th of February, 1847.

My situation at that time, just as the situation of the world, was very different from what it is

now. During the bankruptcy of the February Revolution I lost my savings, which consisted of shares in the bank of Gouin and in similar institutions. To this must be added my sickness, which prevented me from acquiring any great capital through assiduous work, while at the same time the increase of my expenses on account of my illness forced me to exhaust my last resources. Besides, as early as the year 1846, I had alienated my literary capital by ceding completely the copyright of my German works, for a trifling sum, to my Hamburg publisher. I wished, in taking this step, to avoid lawsuits which, by the scandal they would have caused, might have given offence to my uncle Salomon, who was then still living, and who, as he had promised to secure me a brilliant future by his last will, had a right to expect that I would use my talents, not for gain, but as a poet, for the purpose of making our name honored, as I had done heretofore.

The manuscripts which had remained in my possession, were unfortunately of such a nature. that a change in my religious views, and a concession to persons whom I did not dare to offend by misunderstandings, obliged me to annihilate

the greater part of them-it may be that before my death I will have to destroy them completely -and thus, even this last resource, my widow will be deprived of. Her inheritance, therefore, will not be exactly brilliant, and I shall be satisfied if I leave her no debts to pay for me.

I acknowledge that, without the magnanimous kindness of my cousin Carl who has annually paid me the double amount of my pension, I should not have been able, notwithstanding all my efforts, to meet the expenses of my illness.

In view of this change of circumstances, I have decided to trouble my cousin Carl with a posthumous request, which I am so certain that he will grant to me, that I here thank him in advance for it: I beg him to pay after my death, to my widow, not only the half of my pension, but the full amount that I annually received while his father was still alive. My uncle always treated her with kindness and distinction, and this also justifies my request. It is probable that this appeal to the liberality of my cousin is superfluous, and that I anticipate what his generosity would have prompted him to do without it.*

*The reader who wishes to judge correctly regarding this

fragment of Heine's last will, should compare it with the letter which the poet wrote on the 20th of June, 1847, to his publisher, and which we have quoted in our introduction (pp. 95 and 96). But even without such a comparison, it will be easy for those, who are acquainted with Heine's life and character, to perceive that the above fragment does not contain by any means the real thoughts of the poet in regard to his cousin. His tender care for his wife prompts him to flatter Carl Heine, and although he says just the contrary, it is plain to be seen that he inwardly doubts whether the "magnanimous" cousin will grant his request. It seems that Heine's cousin, like the poet's father, was able to stand a strong dose of flattery, judging from the morsels which in the above testament are offered to him, such, for instance, as: "I pressed his noble hand to my lips," and "magnanimous kindness," etc., etc. These hyperbolical expressions, however, serve Heine for still another purpose; they are intended not only to satisfy the tastes of those to whom they are addressed, but also, by their very exaggeration, to intimate that perhaps just the opposite is meant. Thus, for example, when the poet, speaking of his father, says: "He was of all human beings the one whom upon earth I have loved most" ("Memoirs," p. 197), what person who is acquainted with the poet's writings will doubt his meaning?